DEER-SHOOTING AND OTHEE MATTEES. 89 



turn to the left, and pass nearer, or on a level, I did not 

 fire. Instead of taking the direction I expected, he 

 took just the opposite, and, turning the shoulder of the 

 hill, was gone, and I saw him no more that day. Some 

 months afterwards, however, I had the satisfaction of 

 seeing him again, and this time I brought the fine 

 animal on board. His head was the finest I ever got in 

 the south. Taking up another station, I sent my dogs to 

 the extreme end of the valley in which I expected the 

 frightened hinds (for frightened only, it appeared, they 

 were) had gone. In a few minutes they were in full 

 cry, but it took a lot of working to make them show. 

 In half an hour a hind stole away, coming straight for 

 me ; on came my spaniel, sticking to her track capitally, 

 and as the hind passed, I fired where I thought her 

 shoulder would be, as her head and neck was all that 

 topped the grass. Taking a plunge, she disappeared in 

 a sort of break-neck cleft, covered with tangled creepers. 

 Feeling sure she was dead, I remained still, watching 

 my hound-like spaniel ; on she came without a check, 

 passing me, and disappearing where the deer did. To 

 my astonishment, on she went (this I knew by her 

 notes), and watching the valley far down, I saw the 

 hind stealing away towards the stream at the bottom. 

 Making the best haste I could, I followed, and on 



